Durga Puja Ends with Reflection on Quakes, Immersion of Idols

[Guest guest]

New Delhi/Kolkata (Oct 12,2005) : The festival of Dussehra was

celebrated with high enthusiasm throughout the country on Wednesday,

while the nine-day long `Durga Puja' also came to end with immersion

(which symbolically ends the festivities) of huge idols of Goddess

Durga across the nation.

 

In New Delhi, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh while participating

in the Dussehra celebrations at Subhash Nagar ground said the nation

was facing a grave situation in Jammu and Kashmir due to the

devastating October-8 earthquake and appealed to all citizens to

contribute with "open hands" for relief and rehabilitation

operations there.

 

"We are with the people of the state in this hour of grief. Several

children have died and many women have become widows because of the

quake. We all are with them in these trying times," Dr Singh said.

 

Referring to the basic reason for celebrating Dussehra, the Prime

Minister said: "We must continue doing our duty, come what may, as

ultimately truth comes out victorious. Dusshera is symbolic of the

victory of goodness over evil."

 

The PM, along with UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Lt Governor B L

Joshi and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, also released pigeons,

which is considered as "symbols of peace" and coloured baloons to

mark the occasion.

 

In eastern India, it was the women's day out at community Puja

Pandals across as the time for bidding farewell to Goddess Durga

approached.

 

Married ladies, including mothers, wives and daughters joined

together to bid adieu to the Goddess, adorning her with vermilion

and feeding her sweets.

 

They applied vermilion on each other, praying for the well being of

their husbands, asking the Goddess for her blessings, seeking

prosperity, health and wealth for their better halves.

 

In Delhi, hundreds of devotees marched in processions carrying idols

of Goddess Durga to river Yamuna.

 

Celebrated as Durga Puja in the east and Navratra in the north, the

nine-day festival is amongst the biggest in the country as cities,

towns and villages all come alive with celebrations during which

thousands of glittering tents are put up as makeshift temples and

dances and revelry are held every night.

 

Goddess Durga is worshipped during the nine-day "Navratri" festival,

but public display of idols in Pandals or makeshift temples is held

for four days and the idols are immersed in the sea, rivers and

lakes on the last day.

 

Durga is depicted as a powerful goddess, riding a raging lion,

holding aloft ten weapons of war in her ten hands. Her trident is

depicted plunging into the side of a monstrous buffalo, out of whose

body emerges a demon symbolising evil.

 

It is said that the goddess makes her annual visit to the world and

the festivities are meant to welcome her.

 

SOURCE: New Kerala

URL: http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=34971